1996 was the perfect Oscar season for those who like to be kept guessing until the last moment.

There was no clear front-runner among the year’s top contenders.  The National Board of Review got things going with a split vote for the Australian made Shine as Best Picture while Fargo’s Joan Coen took the Best Director award.

The New York Film Critics named Coen’s  comedy-mystery Fargo the year’s Best Picture, but gave their Best Director award to Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier for his first English language film, Breaking the Waves.

The Los Angeles Film Critics decided to go British by naming Secrets & Lies as Best Picture and its helmer, Mike Leigh as Best Director.

The Broadcast Film Critics selected Fargo as the year’s Best Picture and Anthony Minghella as Best Director for The English Patient.

The National Society of Film Critics named Breaking the Waves and its director Lars von Trier as the year’s best.

The Golden Globes gave Best Picture – Drama to The English Patient and pulled another name out of a hat for Best Director, that of Milos Forman for The People vs. Larry Flynt.  Evita won their award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.

The Directors Guild nominated the previously mentioned Joel Coen (Fargo); Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) and Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) along with Scott Hicks (Shine) and Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire).  They gave the award to Minghella.

Oscar nominated all but Crowe, giving his spot to Milos Forman for The People vs. Larry Flynt.  Best Picture nods went to the films of all the nominated directors except The People vs. Larry Flynt, which was supplanted by Jerry Maguire.

What then, would the other five nominees have been had Oscar gone to a ten nominee slate of Best Pictures this year?

Certainly The People vs. Larry Flynt (two nominations, no wins) and Breaking the Waves (one nomination, no win) would have been in the running, but so would Sling Blade (two nominations, one win); Trainspotting (one nomination, no win) and Evita (five nominations, one win) in the year in which Mingehella and The English Patient emerged as the winners.